SALFIT (Ma'an) -- A mosque was set on fire on Wednesday by settlers in the West Bank village of Bruqin, near Salfit, local officials said.

The governor of Salfit Isam Abu Bakr told Ma'an that at 2.00 a.m. a number of settlers sprayed racist anti-Arab slogans on the mosque walls and torched a car belonging to local resident Muatasim Samarah.

Abu Bakr said that the attack came "after Israeli forces issued demolition warrants against the mosque claiming it was built without a license."

Mayor of Bruqin village Accra Samara said a flaming tire was thrown into the entrance of the mosque, and that assailants scrawled the words, "Hero of Ariel," The Associated Press reported.

Ariel is a nearby Jewish only settlement which cuts deep into the West Bank.

A bulldozer belonging to local villager Ali Nael was also set on fire by settlers, locals said.

In June, a mosque in al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah was torched and sprayed with anti-Arab graffiti.

In a similar incident, settlers broke into al-Nurayn mosque in Qusra, south of Nablus in September, smashing windows before setting fire to used tires inside the building.

Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories.

Almost all "price tag" attacks occur in the occupied West Bank, but in October a mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangaria in northern Israel was set alight. On the outside of the mosque were scrawled the words "price tag" and "revenge" in Hebrew.

1 ) Zionist / Truth

07/12/2011 14:22

Attack a Mosque is TERRIBLE, and damaging holy books is TERRIBLE, and Thank God no one was hurt (unlike most Arab attacks), and the truth may be that NEITHER "racist", NOR "anti-Arab", slogans were sprayed, just "price tag", "revenge", and "Hero of Ariel" !!!

2 ) Swedish guy / Ireland

07/12/2011 15:26

At some stage I hope the world wakes up and stands up for truth and justice. We need to bring all the Zionist war criminals to court just like nurnburg. We all need to speak up to these Zionist terrorists and if talk no longer works, create a war on terror towards Israel aswell. Make the demand as USA did to afganistan, hand over the criminals or we invade. We can't as humans stand passively aside and watch the Zionist terror go on. Note that's it's now Jews I'm talking about, but zionist.

3 ) Wow / USA

07/12/2011 16:36

#1, Your a Nazi!

4 ) Julie / USA

07/12/2011 17:23

#2 VERY well said, i completely agree 100%. whoever falsely claims this to be anti-semitic is profoundly ignorant. zionism is NOT judaism AT ALL. jews of the true torah want NOTHING to do with zionists or the false state of israel. google 'jews against zionism' and 'truetorahjews.org' read the resources these rabbi scholars have on zionism, ALL of it. it's educational and informative beyond words.

5 ) Colin Wright / USA

07/12/2011 21:08

Burning mosques...didn't that happen on Kristallnacht?
No, wait, that was synagogues, and the perpetrators called themselves Nazis, not Zionists.
Same idea, though. That's for sure.

6 ) MOHAMED / SOMALIA

07/12/2011 21:30

TERRIBLE ,TERRIBLE, ISRAELI POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING THE INCIDENT BUT NO ACTION .THIS IS WHAT PALESTINIAN ARE DEALING EVERY DAY.

7 ) @ Swedish guy #2 / Truth #1

07/12/2011 21:40

I totally agree, "At some stage I too hope (a Swedish guy &) the world wakes up and stands up for truth and justice", but it needs to prioritize things like:- the Sudanese ethnic cleansing of Christians (Darfur, 2003-9) that killed 300,000 & created 3,000,000 refugees, - the Arab dictator/kings murdering their people by the 1,000s, and - NOT focus on Israel for defending itself against 3 Arab invasions, and limitless terror, and it's right to exist on it's ancestral homeland !!!

@Zionist/Truth (which you would not know if it came up and bit you on your posterior). Would you mind providing citations related to 'no one was hurt (unlike most Arab attacks)'? What dream land are you living in?? What do you actually think happens on a daily basis in OPT related to the work of settlers and the IDF?

10 ) Colin Wright / USA

08/12/2011 01:10

To @ Swedish Guy #7 '- the Sudanese ethnic cleansing of Christians (Darfur, 2003-9)...NOT focus on Israel for defending itself against 3 Arab invasions, and limitless terror, and it's right to exist on it's ancestral homeland !!!'
Leaving aside the 'ancestral homeland' fantasy, we don't give any of the groups you mention three billion a year. It'll be a great day when we treat Israel the same as we treat the Sudan.

11 ) abu Emeth / usa

09/12/2011 08:06

7, your shot term memory is faulty; a nation was proclaimed on another peoples' soil - that's the first agression, not to mention the villages where men, women and children were slaughtered. in 1956, england, france and israel attacked egypt. in 1967, israel sneak attacked egypt, the palestinians in gaza, and syria, and fought the jordanians. you are right though; in 1973 the egyptians attacked and attempted to liberate palestine.

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